History Ford's Model T Banger replacement: The X-8

I talked to a guy the other day that was telling me about this experimental engine Henry was working on to replace the Model T engine. He said no matter what they tried on the T banger they could only get 20hp out of it, so they brought a Ford aviation engineer in and he got 40hp out of it.... Not being satisfied, this is what they came up with to replace the T banger!

Just imagine if there was no Banger meeting each month!!!


This picture is out of a book he had that was published in 1959.

 

There were several different X engines over several years of experimentation. I think the engineer story is a slightly adrift take on early Model A development.

 

Henry was open to ideas early on. Later he resisted all change.

 

I figured it was probably a little bit stretched, or maybe he had some fact changed. But it was a really interesting story, and I had never heard or seen anything on it?

 

Some more stuff http://books.google.com/books?id=S2...Ford 1922 OR 1924 OR 1926 "X engines"&f=false

There is actually a good bit of info out there, old and modern. Wild stuff...note that one engine mentioned occupied about one cubic foot!

 

Eli Apolzon has an X-8 engine and some photos; if you Google search his name, you can find his webpage.

 

any mention of how much power it made?

 

Man wouldnt you love to have that, just as a conversation piece, I have an old ford book that shows a water cooled version and looks alot less like an aircraft engine.

 

Not as powerful as a flathead design apparently......This is what Eli Apolzon's site says.....

"After test driving this exact X-8 engine in an Oldsmobile for nearly a year, Henry Ford decided his engine needed more power and eventually developed the flathead V-8 design"

Spence.

 

Me getting my hands dirty with it..
Neat engine..

 

What are your plans OHV?

 

Just add a tailwheel and put some tires on the fans! No need for the rest of the car!

 

Back in the Seventies, there was at least one T-based X-engine on display at the Henry Ford Museum. There may have been more than one.

 

I'm not positive on this, but I think I remember reading about ford continuing this research after the V8 was built into the mid 30's. I want to say it was a rear engine layout along the lines of a beetle.

 

Look for some of my posts on Ford patents...weird stuff from the thirties.
Use advanced Google patent, set dates to bracket the era of the device, use "Ford" as assignee, find neat stuff everywhere!

 

I'm not positive about this, but I seem to recall a flathead V8 based X-16 engine on display at the museum, too.

 

There was an article some years back about Henry's experiments- he also had a 5 cylinder and a 6. He was rather secretive about them, but not to keep others from stealing the ideas as much as embarrassment from failure.

If I can find the article, I'll post it, but the engines are in one of the buildings at Greenfield Village.

 

It's more than a few pages- here we go:

 

Set 2:

 

Thanks for posting that, Mac. Very interesting!

I am almost certain that the group of experimental engines that I saw in the Henry Ford Museum was a different group than these.